


Broken Angels

by revishawke



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Eventual Happy Ending, F/F, Heavy and Dark, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Maybe Chasemarsh?, Old Gods of Arcadia Bay, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slow Build, Suicide Attempt, Supernatural Elements, Time Travel, Trauma, pricefield
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:48:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27577420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/revishawke/pseuds/revishawke
Summary: Chloe Price should have died in that bathroom. In another timeline, she was ready to die for the town she hated. She didn’t deserve to be alive nor to be saved. She was meant to die. It was her fate after all... or so she thought. However, the Old Gods of Arcadia Bay seemed to have a different plan in their mind as she wakes up in that bathroom very much alive and hella confused. She has many questions, but non occupy her mind as much as the following: Where the hell is Max Caulfield?
Relationships: Maxine "Max" Caulfield/Chloe Price
Comments: 24
Kudos: 24





	Broken Angels

_“But who ever said we only have a single fate?”  
-Max Caulfield _

Chloe has always thought that dying would be less... uncomfortable. In movies they are usually pretty straight forward and fast. They just pull the trigger and you’re dead faster than you can say hella. They occasionally stretch it out for dramatic purposes, the side character saying some mushy bullshit. It looked kinda painful but uncomfortable is not a word that would have ever come to Chloe’s mind. No one mentioned anything about splitting headaches. Chloe was used to them after years of having shitty hangovers but this crushing pain originating from the back of her head? That was something new. At least tasting your own blood was movie accurate....

Not like she had any experience getting shot, so who knows how these things are supposed to go? Okay, technically, she had been shot twice before but she had no recollection about those, courtesy of Super Max and her amazing rewind powers. But in the end, she couldn’t escape her fate, she was meant to die in this shitty bathroom. Max was just merely prolonging the inevitable. She didn’t have a choice; it was either her or this town and her life definitely wasn’t worth shit. They all deserved better than to be killed by a fucking storm. She, on the other hand, deserved to die. She has been so selfish, guilt tripping Max at every opportunity even though all she did was to show her love and support. But of course, Chloe Price couldn’t let bygones be bygones, she just had to lash out at Max even when it was clearly not her fault. Even worse, because she couldn’t calm down for 5 freakin’ minutes, Max got kidnapped by that monster Jefferson. Chloe felt sick just by the idea of what that asshole did to her. She hated them for putting her into that position, but she hated herself more letting it happen.

Because it was all her fault, wasn’t it? She was just a loser trash that messes up everything she touches. She pushed everyone away, lashed out every chance she got. She blamed everyone but herself for her shitty life. No wonder everyone abandoned her, she was so horrible to be around that Rachel would rather be with a drug dealer and a psychopath than with her. Her own fucking mother gave up on her years ago. She got exactly what she deserved. Bleeding out in a fucking bathroom due to her own stupidity, alone and abandoned, amounting to nothing. Dying in a gutter like this was a fitting ending for her. For years she played chicken with the train, she wanted to die. She got what she wished for. 

There was just one tiny little detail that was bugging the everlasting shit out her. Why the hell does this take so long? Sure, adrenalin might have fucked up her perception or some shit but this was ridiculous. Was it really too much to ask to bleed out quickly? 

The feeling that something was terribly wrong slowly crept into Chloe’s mind. She was frustrated at herself for not realizing sooner that she had memories she shouldn’t have. If Max went back in time to let her die, then why the fuck does she remember everything? The last thing she remembers was being on the cliff with Max... 

_You feel the cold, drenched in the rain. The howling wind is almost deafening. But the cold wind swirling around you isn’t the reason why you are shivering right now. You are holding the shoulder of your best friend. You look deep into her beautiful eyes. Any other time, those eyes would have calmed you down, but not this time. You feel your heart in your throat, beating so loud you can no longer hear the rage of the storm. You want to be lost in those eyes, but you can’t no matter how much you want to. You see the conflict in her eyes. You feel both relieved and surprised. It’s an easy choice after all, is it not? It’s the only way._

__

_“Max....It’s time...” Your words sound more like a whisper as they leave your lips but it is all you can manage. You don’t want to die...No, that’s a lie, and you know it. You want to die. You deserve to die. All the emotions you tried to ignore for years are now swirling in your mind more ferociously than the storm itself. You’re a fuck up, a drop out. A nobody. You’re pathetic. You don’t deserve to be loved. You deserve to be tossed aside. You shouldn’t have been born.  
_  
_You let go of her arms. You see a deep sadness in her eyes, as she slowly backs away and turns her attention towards the storm that ravages Arcadia Bay. She made her choice. The correct choice. The only choice. You are trying to gather all your strength, not to freak out.  
_ _“Not anymore” Her words are echoing in your mind as you see Max tearing the polaroid into two. You watch it as the storms rips the picture from her hand, blowing it away. You can barely believe what just occurred as you look down. She chose...you._

__

_You slowly approach her, not taking your eyes off the ground. You are too afraid to look up. You are terrified by the possibility that you just imagined the whole thing. That Max is going to turn back and laugh at you for even thinking she would save your sorry ass...but she did it, didn’t she?_

__

_“Max....I’ll always be with you.” Your voice is trembling, violently shivering as the wind lashes at your body._

__

_“Forever...” You find her words… oddly comforting. Despite all the horror that is currently transpiring before your eyes, you feel… complete for the first time in years. Without even thinking about, you grab Max’s hand, holding it tightly as you watch the storm closing in on your childhood town. You both stay silent, there is nothing that needs to be said now. Nothing can be said. Nothing should be said. You see Max shaking next to you; you wrap your arm around her, holding her close to you. You feel the small girl shivering in your embrace. You want to protect her. You will protect her._

__

_You can’t help but to watch the storm obliterating everything in its path. You don’t want to look away. You want to remember this moment forever. You want to remember the sacrifice she made for you. You want to remember how much she loves you. You want this as a reminder when your shitty feelings inevitably come back to haunt you, to give you strength. To be better. To honor all those who have perished. To be worthy of love. To be the person Max deserves..._

__

The vision ended as soon as it began. Chloe cried out in agony, the pain throbbing violently in her head. This is not what happened. Why did she see all that? More importantly, why the fuck did it feel so real? The pain slowly subdued, it wasn’t quite gone but it was more tolerable. Something was clearly wrong. Chloe slowly opened her eyes, immediately noticing the shitty gray color of the Blackwell’s bathroom...and the toilet bowl right next to her face. _Bleeding out next to a fucking toilet how fitting_ , Chloe thought. Though, the idea of being in the wrong place kept nagging her. Chloe might not have been the most eminent student in the past couple years, but even she knew that there was no fucking way she has fallen sideways that much. Or at all really, she was shot in the stomach, right? She should have fallen backwards if anything.  
She apprehensively looked down to see...no bullet wound. Strange. While she was somewhat relieved to see herself not bleeding out in a dirty bathroom that was in dire need of cleaning, the dreadful implications of her not being so dead terrified her to the core. Because if she wasn’t shot then... 

“Max....” Chloe immediately regretted jumping to her feet so quickly, as she almost managed to fall right into the toilet, momentarily blinded by flashing colorful spots. Nausea overwhelmed her and she turned around to vomit into the toilet. _I probably have a concussion, she thought._

Chloe slowly walked out of the booth, still somewhat dizzy, when she noticed her would be killer, Nathan fucking Prescott, standing right in front her. Seeing your killer in front of you would be a surreal experience on its own, and it was during the week that never was. The thing that freaked her the most was the fact that Nathan was completely frozen. Or almost completely frozen. He was... flickering. It reminded Chole of those old VHS tapes that when you pause it, the image is just jumping back and forth between two frames with random colors popping up every now and then. 

This surreal stillness was eerie, the sense of wrongness grew ever so steadily in her. On closer inspection, Chloe noticed a few irregularities. Nathan was aiming his gun towards the bathroom door and not where she was supposed to be standing. If this experience wasn’t fucked enough as it is, she could see a bullet a few inches away from the barrel, flickering in midair, fucking _taunting_ her. 

Good news, Max probably didn’t get shot instead of her. Chloe didn’t know what she would do if something happened to her. She decided to ignore these feelings and instead focus on the task at hand. Finding Max. She quickly went to the end of the stalls, finally “checking the perimeter” as she should have the first time around. Maybe things would have turned out differently if she found Max there. Maybe they could have avoided that clusterfuck of a week, or maybe both of them would have ended up dying here. She looked behind the stall but much to her disappointment and ever-growing fear, Max was not there. 

Chloe sighed with frustration as she leaned on the sink. _Well, I look like shit_ , she thought as she examined herself in the mirror. Her face looked as if someone had decked her, dried blood all over her mouth. At least it explained why she still tasted iron. She turned the water tap in an attempt to make herself look less like a boxer. 

“No water. Fucking great”. She searched her pockets for some tissue. Finding nothing, she took some toilet paper and cleaned herself as much as she could given the circumstances. Was this just some kind of sick cosmic joke? Were the Old Gods of Arcadia Bay just fucking with her? Was she in purgatory for all the bullshit she has ever pulled? _Fuck that_ , Chloe thought. The Old Gods can suck her metaphorical dick, she will find Max even if she has to tear a fucking hole in the fabric of time itself. With a new found determination, Chloe stormed out of the bathroom, flipping off Dickscott for good measures. Next time she definitely goes full Callamastia on his punk ass. 

Blackhell’s hallway was almost empty, only a few students were... well, frozen in place. When Max told her about how she froze time in an attempt to save Kate, she didn’t mention how incredibly fucking weird and creepy freezing time was. Probably Max didn’t want to relive the whole thing again, and Chloe didn’t feel like pushing for more details. She felt shitty for what happened earlier that day. 

Chloe continued to march through the hallways. From the corner of her eye, she saw a glimpse of the one person who she really didn’t want to see or think about. David fucking Madsen was the blight of Chloe’s existence. Ever since Sergeant Porn Mustache bulged into her life and tried to take the place of her real father, life had been a living hell for her. Like he could even come close to being half as good as William. That control freak didn’t even try to be a decent human being, from day one he ordered her around like a soldier. That asshole seemed to have a hard on just tearing her down. Making her feel like shit, like nothing. Fucking hitting her. She wanted nothing more than to just hate that “man”. But mere minutes ago, she was ready to die so that her step...father could live. The man who abused her for years was also the one who saved her Max when Chloe failed spectacularly. The same man who apparently was crushed by her death. It was still hard to believe what Max told her at the party. So, saying that she was confused about her feelings regarding him would be the understatement of the fucking century. 

She hated these stupid fucking confusing feelings. That’s why she preferred to be angry, or at the very least numb. It was so much easier, so much safer because each time she allowed herself to feel more…

She hated those places her mind wandered those times, her feeling swirling out of control. Crushing her into a pathetic ball of sorrow, curled up into a fetal position, her knees fucking against her chest. Her tears bursting forward like water from a dam. Shivering and crying for hours and only stopping once exhaustion took her into a dreamless sleep. 

Chloe rushed through the door which closed behind her with a loud bang. _Maybe a bit too loudly_ , she thought. The afternoon sun momentarily blinded her as she rushed down the stairs, but a temporary setback like that wouldn’t stop her.. She slipped on something when she reached the bottom of the stairs, falling flat on her ass after a desperate but fruitless struggle to regain her balance. . Chloe noticed a piece of paper, the one she slipped on, gliding elegantly through the air to land far more gently than she managed to. _Wait...if time is frozen how the fuck is this paper fluttering down right now? What’s on this shit anyway?_

She grabbed that paper to see what kind of asshole just left all these shits laying around... Well, of fucking course, it was Rachel’s missing person poster. The universe had a really fucking weird sense of humor. First Rachel, and now... No, Chloe thought, she will not go there. At least no one saw her falling flat on her.... 

“Chloe, are you alright?” 

_FUCK!_ “Good afternoon, Ms. Grant. I’m fine,” Chloe sighed as she looked up to see her old science teacher approaching her with a concerned look on her face. She was always Chloe’s favorite teacher; probably because she was the only one at Blackhell who at least gave a damn about Chloe and did not treat her like a deadbeat piece of shit. Though she was a bit pushy about Chloe’s academics, she was pretty cool. Even after her expulsion, she was always so kind to her, especially after Rachel’s... disappearance when she hit rock bottom. It was actually Ms. Grant who suggested decorating Arcadia Bay with Rachel’s face. Even though probably both of them knew deep down that it was hopeless, she actually insisted on paying for the printing. 

Chloe stood up and dusted herself off, then turned her attention towards Ms. Grant. 

“So, what brings you to Blackwell on this lovely day, Chloe? Putting up more posters?” 

Shaking her head, Chloe says “Not this time. I’ve been looking for my friend, Max Caulfield?” 

“Oh?” Ms. Grant asks, seeming unsurprisingly surprised at this information. “I didn’t know you and Max were friends.” 

Chloe sighs again. “It’s kind of a long story but we grew up together and fell out of touch when her family moved her to Seattle. We started to hang out again just recently. We were actually supposed to meet after class... Have you by any chance seen her?” 

The concern creeps back into Ms. Grant’s expression. “Now that you mention it, I haven’t seen Max all day. She even skipped my class, which is so unlike her. I hope she’s all right... Have tried calling her?” 

“I... forgot my phone my truck, I’m really absent-minded today it seems. Thank you, Ms. Grant.” Without waiting for her reply Chloe spun around and headed towards the parking lot. She was lying of course; her phone was in her pocket. Explaining to Ms. Grant the she was unable to call Max because the cell reception was probably not best when time isn’t moving forward would have been a hard sell. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Trevor trying to do a tre fip and spectacularly failing by hitting himself in the dick. Chloe hoped someone took a photo of that, because she wanted to taunt the skater later with it. 

Reaching her truck, she pulled open the door and jumped into it. Resting her head on the wheel Chloe tried to figure out what to do next. She tried to ignore that her heartbeat was all over the place, and that breathing was anything but steady. She doesn’t have the time for fucking panic attack. What did Ms. Grant say? Call Max. Yes. Chloe fished the phone out of her pocket and dialed Max without even thinking. She didn’t pick up. Chloe tried again... Nothing. And again. She was on the verge of complete breakdown. 

“Come on Max... pick up the fucking phone... please” She dialed again, her breath becoming more rattled, her body shivering, her panic growing. It’s happening again, isn’t it? Chloe tried her best not to think about that day but her mind kept bringing her back to that dark place. She tried to think about anything else, but it was too late. That fucking April day kept replying in her head over and over again. The day Rachel disappeared, the day the fucking universe took everything from her again. Her emotion swept over her and all Chloe could do was cry. Everything she tried to ignore in the past week came back in full force. She cried for Rahcel, who was buried in the only place where she felt at peace and safe. With all the bullshit that happened, she didn’t even have the time to properly mourn her. She hated the world for taking her. She hated Rachel for leaving her, for lying to her. She hated herself for being so blind and weak. She cried for Max, who had gone through so much bullshit for her. She didn’t deserve her, never did. She was always so much better than her, so kind, so innocent. But the universe had to rip her innocence away as punishment for knowing Chloe. But Max needed her. She failed Rachel, but she couldn’t fail Max. 

Breathe in... breathe out... Breathe in... Breathe out... It’s been a while since Chloe needed to do this, but she managed to calm herself down. She has to go on. She can’t stop. Not now. Where is Max? Where should she start the search? She wasn’t in the bathroom. She could try to wait for Max to show up again here like last time, or try to sneak into her dorm. That would mean she might run into David, and Chloe was not in the mood to talk with him right now. She could try to go to the lighthouse where she last saw her. It’s a long shot but might be worth a try, Chloe thought as she pulled her keys out of her pocket. 

The journey to the lighthouse was quick, but to Chloe it felt like an eternity before she reached the parking lot. She was heading towards the trail, when a sudden loud croaking stopped her in her tracks. Glancing behind, Chloe noticed a black feathered bird sitting on a nearby branch, starting at her. It took Chloe a few moments to realize that she knew that bird, she had seen it many times before in her dreams. It wasn’t just a random raven; it was the same there was no denying it. The whole thing was creeping the fuck out of Chloe. _This whole afternoon has been a clusterfuck of creepy weird shit. A fucking bird is not going to scare me_ , Chloe thought as she picked up a nearby stone and threw it in the direction of the bird. She couldn’t aim for shit though and it missed its target by a lot. The raven tilted its head to the side, slightly confused by the girl’s action. It continued to observe Chloe. No, it was examining her. Unaware of it, Chloe took a few steps towards the bird, mesmerized by the creature. It wasn’t an ordinary raven, there was something ancient behind those cold black eyes, yet eerily familiar. Before she could find out what it was, the raven jumped off the branch and flew towards the lighthouse, disappearing into the sun set. 

Once the bird got out of her sight, Chloe sighed heavily. That was probably one of the most bizarre experiences of her life, which was saying a lot considering a tornado almost flattened the whole town. Whirling around, Chloe raced toward the lighthouse. The trek up the hill was long, and all those years of smoking certainly didn’t help but she eventually made it to the top.  
“Max! Are you here? Max?” Chloe shouted, frantically looking around, trying to find the brunette. Max wasn’t here. Chloe sat down on the bench with a heavy sigh. Watching the horizon, Chloe felt so tried, like all that panic she experienced today has drained all her strength away. She watched the sun reflected on the ocean, creating a golden path on the water. What do photographers call that? Max told her so many times. Golden hours. That was it. 

Chloe was not sure how to proceed. Max wasn’t here, she didn’t pick up her phone. Should she attempt to break into the dorms after all? Chloe was lost in her train of thoughts, when suddenly she felt a vibration in her pocket. She pulled her phone out of pocket to see who was calling her. The phone didn’t display a name but she immediately recognized Max’s phone number. Chloe jumped up in excitement and picked up the phone. 

“Thank fucking god. Where the fuck are you?" Chloe said in a frustrated tone. But it wasn't Max who called her back.

"We need to talk." It was Kate Marsh.

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to [DMMeeble](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DMMeeble/pseuds/DMMeeble) for beta reading this. This is my first fic and I hope you all are going to enjoy this. Special shout-out to [ Rainboq ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainboq/pseuds/Rainboq) and [ Sufferingisachoice ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SufferingIsAChoice/pseuds/SufferingIsAChoice) because you are all awesome and have been really motivational and kind which was tremendously helpful to finally get past my anxiety and write.


End file.
